Emotional hypersensitivity…
Being Accompanied to:
- Understand your inner workings.
- Filter your perceptions better.
- Reduce the associated anxiety.
- Raise your tolerance thresholds.
- Manage your energy and emotions on a daily basis.
- Develop more self-care habits and resilience.
- Transform those limitations into strengths!!
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What is neurodivergence emotional Hypersensitivity
Being hypersensitive means being in a state of constant attunement and synchronization with your environment. It is sensing, observing and feeling almost everything that is going on; tangible or subtle, factual or emotional, verbal and non-verbal, big picture and small details. The nature of what you pick up, even if it doesn’t belong to you, will have an important impact on how you feel; mood, stress, fatigue, health, etc.
At a young age, a child learns to model empowering and self-regulative behaviors through co-regulation with his parents. However, the hypersensitive child often feels different and misunderstood… Causing him to isolate, to have smaller comfort zones, to devalue himself, and to not express how he feels. This causes him to not get the co-regulation he needs, thus not fully learning the self-regulative skillset he needs to better handle stress, emotions, and relationships.
Different Types of emotional hypersensitivy
For me, there are many types of hypersensitivity, but 4 types seem to be more predominant. The common denominator would be a hyperstimulation of the nervous system that can lead to anxiety.
- The child who possesses strong intuitive antennas and a lot of empathy… Which often lead to the second type.
- The child who takes responsibility for other’s emotions that he picks up. This can lead to a disproportionate altruism for his age, with a devaluation of his own person and needs.
- The child evolving in an unstable environment, which leads him to deploy his antennas to become hypervigilent in order to feel safe.
- The neurodivergent child (ADHD, autism, hp, etc.) who picks up information in an intense or disorganized way.
- Or 5, a mix of all that!
My Approach With Children
Collaborating with the parents to better understand the needs of the child and find strategies to meet them:
- Management of stress and anxiety.
- Management/reduction of stimulation.
- Expansion of comfort zones and self-confidence.
- Development of self-soothing capabilities.
- Reinforcement of self-worth and self-esteem.
- Expression of emotions and needs.
My Approach with Adults
For hypersensitive adults, the same principles apply… With an emphasis on soothing and desensitizing your nervous system through certain practices. The use of medication is to be seen with your doctor, which I cannot prescribe or advise against.
Another approach I like to teach is « reparenting »! In other words, to become your own parent! Its about learning to regularly inquire on the needs you might have, that might have been left unmet or neglected as a child; leaving you to overly depend on others to co-regulate you. Over time, this practice may help you to develop your capacity to meet your own needs and self-regulate more.
The Different Expressions:
Emotional
To intensely feel emotions, sometimes to the point of loosing control of them.
Extra-sensory (energetical)
The body emmits electromagnetic frequencies constantly. Therefore, it is possible, for those sensitive or attentive enough, to pick up on or absorb those kinds of information; others’ emotions, moods, intentions, tensions, etc. For children, this type of hypersensitivity can easily become a source of anxiety!
Immediate (very common among children)
To have immediate, often physical, reactions when an emotion is felt. For example; having a tummy ache when feeling anxious.
Retarded or displaced
Having feelings that stretch over time, which can bring back memories that make us re-experience past emotions or traumas. (Increases susceptibility to depression).
Sensory (touch)
Sensations on the skin that are often difficult to bear or tolerate.
Olfactory (smells)
Increased sensitivity to smells; which are often associated with memories or emotions.
Auditory (noises)
Increased discomfort to certain sounds and noises. Difficulty with rapid or extreme acoustic variations.
Electrosensitivity
Accute sensitivity to electromagnetic fields. This can cause an array of ailments; headaches, vertigos, paliptations, brain fog, skin problems, intense fatigue, etc.
Common Difficulties:
Hypersensitivity and feeling vulnerable often go hand in hand. This may heighten vigilance and reinforce the need for protection… translating itself into different self-limiting behaviors:
- Needing solitude and isolation.
- Avoiding attention and wanting to become invisible.
- Fear of speaking in groups and standing up for yourself.
- Difficulty recognizing and expressing your own needs.
- Taking on other’s well-being on your shoulders.
- Having to continiously project the image of a strong person!!
- Melancholy caused by a lack of authenticity and fear of being your true self.
- Fatigue and lack of energy… because all of these behaviors eat away at your inner resources!
Why does anxiety get in the mixde l’hypersensibilité émotionnelle
We could sum up anxiety as a constant negative anticipation of life situations. This is caused by a persistant physiological reaction to stress, combined with a fertile imagination. It then provokes a nervous system overload; which can have dire physical, mental and emotional impacts.
Our emotional reactions are managed by the cerebral amygdala, whose role is to filter what we perceive into two categories: pleasant and safe or unpleasant and threathening. When we perceive a threath, the amygdala reacts in 3 different ways: fight, flight, or freeze.
Usually, the physiological stress response (cortisol, adrenaline) dissipates when the threath dissapears; a process that greately imply our eyes.
Unfortunately, the many informations perceived by the various forms of hypersensitivity are invisible to the eye and tend to stimulate the imagination more. Therefore, fighting or fleeing an invisible threath becomes impossible and tiresome for the brain! At some point, the only reaction left is “freeze”… thus creating a sense of powerlessness!
And so, while this powerlessness continues to be felt inside, the physiological stress response can never truly settle down. In the long run, this can bring on chronic stress, or even anxiety.
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